Apparatus, method and computer program product for resource locator using queries

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is an apparatus, including a memory for receiving a resource descriptor, the resource descriptor including a uniform resource identifier (URI) for a particular resource and an associated search query for locating the particular resource; and a controller, coupled to the memory, for initiating an access process for the particular resource using the resource descriptor. A method of retrieving a particular resource, comprising: parsing a resource descriptor into a uniform resource identifier (URI) for the particular resource and an associated search query for locating the particular resource; and initiating an access process for the particular resource using the URI and the associated search query.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Under 35 USC §120, this application is a continuation application andclaims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/634,617, filed Aug. 5, 2003, entitled “Apparatus, Method and ComputerProgram Product for Resource Locator Using Queries” which is related toapplication Ser. No. 10/634,947, filed Aug. 5, 2003 entitled “Apparatus,Method and Computer Program Product for Producing a ResourceDescriptor”, all of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to managing references toresources distributed over multiple locations, and more specifically tocreating and managing a generalized resource locator for accessing aparticular resource and/or related resources potentially distributedacross multiple locations across multiple computing systems on anetwork.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The use of a uniform resource locator (URL) by a web browser to locateand retrieve a particular document that is stored in a particularlocation on one of thousands of computer systems all connected to anetwork is well-known. The use of a URL in this instance is satisfactoryfor documents that are located where they are expected.

However, if a document is moved, deleted or modified, the URL may becomeinappropriate for the document. The URL may be inappropriate because thedocument no longer resides at the location specified, or the documentthat resides at the location specified is not the one that was availablewhen the URL was specified.

In some instances, the document specified not only resides at thespecified location, but in one or more other locations besides thespecified location. Sometimes, it is advantageous to find thesedocuments in the alternate locations.

Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for better managementof documents distributed over multiple computers on a network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed is an apparatus, including: a memory for receiving a resourcedescriptor, the resource descriptor including a uniform resourceidentifier (URI) for a particular resource and an associated searchquery for locating the particular resource; and a controller, coupled tothe memory, for initiating an access process for the particular resourceusing the resource descriptor. A method of retrieving a particularresource, comprising: parsing a resource descriptor into a uniformresource identifier (URI) for the particular resource and an associatedsearch query for locating the particular resource; and initiating anaccess process for the particular resource using the URI and theassociated search query.

The apparatus and method generate a signature for a particular resourcethat permits accessing of the resource, and copies of the resource, evenwhen a URL for the resource is inappropriate (e.g., the resource hasmoved or has not been updated).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource access apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource access process; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource identifier creation process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to managing references to resourcesdistributed over multiple locations. The following description ispresented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use theinvention and is provided in the context of a patent application and itsrequirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment and thegeneric principles and features described herein will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiment shown but is to be accorded thewidest scope consistent with the principles and features describedherein.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource access apparatus 100 that uses a resource descriptor 105 havingboth a uniform resource identifier (URI) 110 and a signature 115.Descriptor 105 is a reference to a specific resource 120 ₁ of aplurality of references 120 _(n) distributed over multiple locations,typically over multiple networked computers. URI 110 and signature 115are written into a memory 125 coupled to a controller 130 that interactswith an access process 135, in cooperation with a search engine 140, foraccessing one or more resources 120. As used herein, resource refers toany directly addressable object, datum, file, or portion thereof. Memoryincludes typical memory formats (e.g., volatile or non-volatilesemiconductor storage, magnetic storage, magneto-optic storage) as wellas other storage formats such as, for example, a database, web page linkin an hyper-text markup language (HTML) file.

URI 110 may be any direct reference resource address, such as forexample an address using a uniform resource locator (URL), a universalnaming convention (UNC), or a directory-file structure (DFS) name.Signature 115 is a reference identity qualifier that has severalpotential uses. One use is to ensure that a resource located by a URI isin fact the desired document. A signature is generated from the locatedresource and compared to signature 115 supplied by resource descriptor105. Matching signatures (to within a tolerance) confirms that thelocated resource is the intended resource. For instance, if signature115 is chosen to be a search query, the document located by the URI isconsistent with signature 115, if a search based on signature 115returns the located document as the top (N) results in the result set.

Additionally, signature 115 is used to locate the proper resource andclosely related documents, and may be used even when URI finds thedesired resource. In this use, signature 115 is actually a query that isreasonably guaranteed to return the desired resource as the top (or topN) entries in a related or qualified search result list of resources.When URI 110 locates a candidate resource, signature 115 qualifies thecandidate resource when the located resource is returned in the searchresult list. Further, signature 115 may be used to find other copies ofthe desired resource as well as other resources similar to the desiredresource. When URI 110 does not locate a candidate resource, signature115 locates one or more candidate resources.

Controller 130 is a microprocessor, microcontroller or the like thatoperates according to instructions specified by access process 135,using the information stored in memory 125 to extract the resourcedescriptor 105 (or portions thereof) to locate and/or retrieve a desiredresource and/or one or more qualified candidate resources.

Access process 135 is a sequence of steps for confirming location,locating, accessing, retrieving, using, transferring, copying, deleting,modifying, etc., a particular resource 120 ₁. Access process 135 may beimplemented in a browser, file system, or other application or routineof a computing system.

The use of search engines and of indexing engines on computing systems,intranets, extranets, networks, wide-area-networks, and othercollections of computing systems is well-known. A usefulness of thepreferred embodiment of the present invention is improved when a searchengine is available and resources 120 are fully-indexed and reasonableefforts are made to maintain the indices. However, other signaturesystems may be used in other implementations, including systems fordynamic generation of signatures or signature-related information.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource access process 200. Apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 implementsprocess 200 to access a resource using a resource descriptor. In typicaloperation, resource descriptor 105 is used in all places where referenceto a particular resource is needed, for example, e-mails to colleagues,references to a hypertext document, and as document links in a documentdatabase.

Process 200, at step 205, parses resource descriptor 105 into URI 110and signature 115. Next at step 210, process 200 initiates operation ofaccess process 135. Process 200 first uses URI 110 to initiate an accessof the desired resource 120 ₁.

At step 215, process 200 determines whether a candidate resource islocated from step 210. When a candidate resource is found, process 200may perform an optional test at step 220 to determine whether thecandidate resource is qualified by signature 115. An example of aqualification is whether signature 115 matches the candidate resourceclosely enough, or in the case of a query signature, whether thecandidate resource is sufficiently close on a search score.

When the candidate resource is-qualified at step 220, process 200executes step 225 and returns the candidate resource. Step 225 may, insome implementations, not actually return the candidate resource, butreturn a URI for the candidate resource. In other implementations, thecandidate resource may be operated on by some other process after beinglocated at step 225.

If no candidate resource is found, or if a located candidate resource isnot qualified, process 200 executes step 230 to use signature 115 tolocate one or more qualified candidate resources. When signature 115 isa query, the query is applied to the applicable search engines.

When the qualified candidate resource(s) are located at step 230,process 200 executes step 235 to return the candidate resource(s). Step235 may, in some implementations, not actually return the candidateresource(s), but return one or more URIs for the candidate resource(s).In other implementations, the candidate resource may be operated on bysome other process after being located at step 235. Providing searchengine 140 with “fuzzy” searching capability permits location of similarresources to a specific intended URI.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow diagram for a preferred embodiment of aresource identifier creation process 300. Process 300 begins at step 305with an initial query (which in some cases is null or blank) or includessome specific initial value or set of values depending upon theimplementation. Whatever the initial query at step 305, process 300 next(step 310) selects a keyword to be used with the current value of thequery. In the preferred embodiment, the existence of a full index of theresource set improves the value of the present invention. Step 310selects a keyword from the index.

Each keyword may be chosen in multiple ways. An “efficient” (e.g., asmall) search query may be generated by first selecting keywords whosecorresponding index entry is contained by the least number of resources.A search query that is a good signature of a particular resource isachieved by examining statistics of the resource. Keywords that arereferenced a maximum number of times are selected first.

Process 300 at step 315 merges or adds the keyword from step 310 to thecurrent state of the query to produce a new query. The fitness of thenew query as a signature is tested next at step 320. Process 300conducts a search using the query obtained from step 315 and examines asize of the result set. If the size is less than a predetermined size N,then the query from step 315 is satisfactory and the query/signaturegeneration process concludes at step 325.

However, if at step 320 the search result size is greater than N,process 300 returns to step 310 to select a new keyword. Process 300repeats step 310 through step 320 until the search result size is lessthan N.

The following is an example of the preferred embodiment for use with aweb-based magazine. A current issue is located athttp://www.wbmagazine.com/issues/current/index.html. A subscriber of themagazine bookmarks the URI as indicated above and has easy access to thecurrent issue of the magazine.

The magazine provides users with access to articles and informationcontained in previous issues. Back issues of the magazine are kept athttp://www.wbmagazine.com/issues/yyyy_mm_dd/index.html, with yyyy_mm_ddrepresenting the publication date of any particular back issue. When anext issue is published, the content underhttp://www.wbmagazine.com/issues/current/index.html is moved to theappropriate location in thehttp://www.wbmagazine.com/issues/yyyy_mm_dd/index.html format.

A reader is interested in a particular article regarding “java beans” inthe current issue:http://www.wbmagazine.com/issues/current/features/javabeans.html. Thereader bookmarks the location, without appreciating that when the nextissue is published, the bookmark will be invalid. Failure of thebookmark leads the reader to attempt to search for the article, with thereader attempting to formulate an effective query to locate the javabeans article. Unfortunately, it can be that there are a great many ofarticles regarding “java beans” as that may be a popular topic for themagazine. The search results may produce interesting articles, but thereader may need to expend considerable effort to find the desiredarticle, if it is to be found at all.

When the reader bookmarks a descriptor for the article instead of theURI, the problem is avoided. One possible presentation of the descriptorwould behttp//www.wbmagazine.com/issues/current/features/javabeans.html?query=“jb_signature”with the descriptor being a servlet request, though otherimplementations are possible. Using the descriptor to access thebookmarked issue, the web site will first attempt to use the URI toaccess the resource. If the article has moved, the servlet conducts asearch on the site servers to locate the resource. Instead of an errorpage, the servlet returns a list of N candidate resources that thereader may choose from.

When a candidate resource is found with the URI, the servlet qualifiesthe candidate resource to determine whether the resource is consistentwith the signature. The servlet may again present a list of alternatecandidate resources when the URI is not qualified. In some instances,even when the URI is qualified, the servlet may return a list ofadditional candidate resources similar to the resource at the URI.

One of the preferred implementations of the present invention is as aroutine in an operating system made up of programming steps orinstructions resident in memory 125, FIG. 1, during computer operations.Until required by the computer system, the program instructions may bestored in another readable medium, e.g. in a disk drive, or in aremovable memory, such as an optical disk for use in a CD ROM computerinput or in a floppy disk for use in a floppy disk drive computer input.Further, the program instructions may be stored in the memory of anothercomputer prior to use in the system of the present invention andtransmitted over a LAN or a WAN, such as the Internet, when required bythe user of the present invention. One skilled in the art shouldappreciate that the processes controlling the present invention arecapable of being distributed in the form of computer readable media in avariety of forms.

Although the present invention has been described in accordance with theembodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyrecognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and thosevariations would be within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one ofordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

1. An apparatus comprising: a memory storing a resource descriptorassociated with a specific resource, the resource descriptor comprisinga uniform resource identifier (URI) and a signature, wherein thesignature is not a uniform resource identifier; and a controller coupledto the memory, the controller initiating an access process to access thespecific resource associated with the resource descriptor, the accessprocess confirming a candidate resource is the specific resourceassociated with the resource descriptor responsive to the candidateresource being located using the URI, and locating one or more othercandidate resources using the signature response to no candidateresources being located using the URI or responsive to the candidateresource not being confirmed as the specific resource.
 2. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the signature is a query and wherein confirming thecandidate resource is the specific resource comprises: executing thequery to compile a result set, and confirming the candidate resource isone of a predetermined number of top results in the result set.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein confirming the candidate resource is thespecific resource comprises: generating a candidate signature from thecandidate resource, and confirming the candidate signature matches thesignature associated with the specific resource within a predeterminedtolerance.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein generating a candidatesignature from the candidate resource comprises: selecting a pluralityof keywords form the candidate resource, and creating the candidatesignature based on the plurality of keywords selected.
 5. The apparatusof claim 4, wherein a number of keywords from the candidate resourceselected to create the candidate signature is based on a result set sizeof the candidate signature created.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe signature is a query and wherein locating one or more othercandidate resources using the signature comprises: executing the queryto locate the one or more other candidate resources.
 7. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein each of the one or more other candidate resources is acopy of the specific resource or another resource similar to thespecific resource.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein no candidateresources are located using the URI as a result of relocation ordeletion of the specific resource from a location identified by the URI.